JimmyAITeacher Resources

30-Minute Lesson

AI Rules: Help vs. Cheating

A teacher-led lesson that gives students concrete language for acceptable AI support and clear misuse. Includes talking points, five discussion questions, five classroom scenarios, and a printable one-page handout.

An open notebook with handwritten study notes, a pencil, and a laptop on a desk

Side-by-side: the line students need to see

Project this section. Read one row from each column at a time and ask students to justify the difference.

AI Help — allowed and useful

  • Explain a concept

    "Explain photosynthesis at a Grade 8 level, then quiz me on it." The student still learns the content.

  • Generate practice questions

    AI builds a 10-question review set. The student answers them without help, then checks.

  • Give feedback on the student's own draft

    "Point out three unclear sentences in my paragraph. Do not rewrite them." The student makes the edits.

  • Organize ideas the student already has

    Turning a messy brainstorm list into an outline the student then writes from.

  • Check understanding

    "Ask me questions until I can explain the causes of World War I without notes."

  • Plan the work

    Breaking a two-week project into daily steps the student actually completes.

AI Cheating — not acceptable

  • Submitting AI-written work as your own

    Pasting a generated essay, lab report, or code file and putting your name on it.

  • Using AI during a live test or quiz

    Any assessment where the point is to show what you personally know.

  • Inventing citations or sources

    AI can produce sources that do not exist. Unverified citations are fabricated evidence.

  • Hiding AI use when disclosure is required

    If the teacher asks how AI was used, silence or a false answer is dishonesty.

  • Sharing AI answers in a group chat during assessment

    Distributing answers makes it cheating for everyone who receives them.

  • Submitting work you cannot explain

    If you can't defend a sentence, a formula, or a line of code, it isn't yours yet.

Teacher talking points

Roughly 8 minutes of direct instruction.

  1. 1Open with the line students heard in the presentation: AI is a tool, not a shortcut. Ask what that means in this class specifically.
  2. 2Draw the line clearly: AI may support your thinking. It may not replace your thinking. Write both sentences on the board.
  3. 3Name the ownership test out loud — understand it, explain it, verify it, own it. All four, every time.
  4. 4Be honest that the tools are useful. Shaming students pushes AI use underground; clear expectations bring it into the open.
  5. 5State your class rule explicitly: when AI is allowed, when it is not, and how students disclose it.
  6. 6Remind students that verification is their job. AI is confident even when it is wrong.
  7. 7Close with the long game: the students who build the skill will out-perform the students who outsource it.
5 discussion questions
  1. 1Where exactly is the line between AI helping you learn and AI doing the learning for you?
  2. 2If AI gives you feedback and you make the edits yourself, whose work is it? What if AI makes the edits?
  3. 3Why does using AI on a live quiz hurt you more than it hurts your teacher?
  4. 4AI invented a source that sounds real. Who is responsible for that error appearing in your paper?
  5. 5What would change in this class if everyone disclosed exactly how they used AI?
5 classroom scenarios
  1. 1A student is stuck on a math problem at 10 p.m. and asks AI to explain the steps of a similar problem, then solves their own. Help or cheating?
  2. 2A student writes a rough paragraph, asks AI to "make it sound better," and submits the AI version. Help or cheating?
  3. 3A student asks AI to generate 20 vocabulary practice questions before a test. Help or cheating?
  4. 4A student uses AI to summarize a novel they never read, then writes an analysis from the summary. Help or cheating?
  5. 5A group uses AI to organize the outline of a presentation, then each member writes their own section. Help or cheating?

Facilitation tip

Ask for a silent thumbs-up / thumbs-down vote before any student speaks. The split itself is the lesson — then ask two students on each side to explain their reasoning.

Printable handout

One page, ink-friendly, Letter size.

AI Help or AI Cheating?

Student handout · 1 page